


Rust Red Romance

by grand_theft_karma



Category: Powers (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Blood, Johnny is in his twenties, M/M, Pre-Canon, Romance, Sexual Content, Suicide mention, Unhealthy Relationships, Voyeurism, dark themes, morality is relative, not very dark but still can disturb somebody, powers kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:42:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5419232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grand_theft_karma/pseuds/grand_theft_karma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wolfe/Royalle drabbles that are taking place around 1994 before the Powerz Kidz massacre. No connection between different chapters unless mentioned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Carpe Diem

When Wolfe was not sure that he can control himself he wouldn't touch Johnny. But he couldn't stop watching him. He didn't know what he had loved more: Johnny's back arched in pleasure, his fingers wrapped around his cock or the way that even when occupied with himself Johnny held his gaze, eyes wide open. Wolfe smiled and secretly bit his tongue. The flesh mended almost momentarily, after letting a couple of blood drops out. His own blood wasn't as good as others', it didn't intoxicate him, but it weakened the red hunger inside.

Johnny bit his lip with half-muffled sob. Wolfe knew the moment he came with pinpoint accuracy because of how Royalle's power had roiled around him at those moments like invisible sparks. The overflowing energy dissipated as fast as it had apppeared. Johnny slid back, lazily wiped his thigh. Wolfe, as quick as lightning, caught him by the elbow, twisted his arm, licked the palm from wrist up to fingertips with animalistic delight. His own powers called to the sparks of Royalle's power that had been caught in pearly drops. Wolfe bit the tips of Johnny's fingers, kissed the knuckles.  
\- Wow, - Johnny breathed out.

Wolfe wouldn't do that two months ago. When he had invited Johnny to his place for the first time, he just wanted to talk. Royalle appeared with a bottle of rum, he had put on a clean shirt and smelled of soap and cigarettes. At least he didn't bring flowers or sweets. Johnny was enraptured, he responded to Wolfe's affection like a stray cat, hungrily leaning in every touch. Then Wolfe surrendered: not to Johnny but to his own desires which Johnny had happened to share. Wolfe much too often couldn't resist the temptations he had sworn off. His life was full of blind spots, they're like snow that covers frozen carrion, they told stories of blood, hunger and loneliness.

Wolfe held Johnny's hand, their fingers entwined. He thought of getting Johnny a ring to wear, with a pink ruby that looks like blood from a vein, like a fresh bruise, like a bitten lip. He didn't think of disaster that had been looming on the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 00\. There probably will be several drabbles, but not many and not at once.  
> 01\. The fact that an exchange of fluids has potential to share powers is briefly mentioned in the show. I'd just elaborated on it.  
> 02\. Royalle's powers mess the cameras up in the show, so they might have something to do with electricity. And Wolfe can sense the electricity.


	2. Lay Down Your Heart

When Wolfe was invited to San Francisco to do several lectures and book signings, he immediately agreed, hoping his unwholesome obsession with Johnny Royalle would tamper down. But the image of him haunted Wolfe through the nights when he lay awake in his spacious hotel room aching with something stronger than just physical desire and his hunger. So he came back defeated.

He didn't have to call Johnny, Royalle was at his door within an hour and in his arms in a couple of seconds after that. Johnny almost dragged Wolfe to the bedroom, biting him on the neck and undressing both of them with clumsy confidence. He growled in frustration if Wolfe stopped touching him even for a moment, and Wolfe barely managed to put the condom on. He didn't want to taint Royalle with darkness of his power, but he thought about it, like the man standing on the verge of abyss contemplates the fall even if he isn't going to jump. He could share the hunger, could make them two of a kind, if only for the night. Or maybe his power would take at once, stay permanent in Johnny. That wasn't the future Wolfe wanted for him.

When Wolfe entered him, Johnny shuddered, dug his fingers in Wolfe's shoulders hard. The bruises formed and faded, formed and faded again. Regeneration made Wolfe unmarkable and sometimes he resented that. But the fiercest mark that Johnny had managed to leave on him was already carved so deep inside it could only be taken out with the heart itself. And Royalle gasping and laughing in the same breath under him only made it deeper. 

Afterwards Johnny settled somewhat awkwardly beside him, unusually quiet and serious.

"I was worried, you know, when you dropped off the grid. I thought some superpowered asshole might try to take a shot and make name for themselves by attacking you. Not in a fair way but stealthily. That's how White Lite died. They've made a documentary on her and Christian've been talking my ear off about it the whole week," Royalle waved his hand in a vaguely apologetic way.

"I can take care of myself." Wolfe pressed mouth to Johnny's temple, relishing the faint taste of sweat on the skin.

"I'm sure of it. But I fucking love you. I thought of you not returning and it made me sick. You know, I also thought of you leaving me, I could live with that. But you're being dead? Fuck, I don't know." 

"I am extremely difficult to kill," Wolfe paused. "When I was seventeen, I'd hurt someone."

"Because of your powers?"

"Yes. Then I stole a gun and decided to kill myself. I knew about my regeneration, but had never imagined the scale of it. Now I see that I just had a certain morbid fascination with the idea of "noble death". Ridiculous." Wolfe smiled warmly, but Royalle didn't find that funny.

"I put the barrel under my chin," Wolfe tilted his head back and showed the place. "I think my hand was shaking when I pulled the trigger. When I woke up the left part of my face was remaking itself piece by piece. A part of my skull was gone, some muscle, teeth on the left side".

Wolfe's fingers gracefully mapped the injures in the air inches from his face and Royalle stared, hypnotised by fluid motions. Something stirred in him, equal parts dread and arousal and shame.

"As you can imagine, it hurt. Bones grow slowly. But somebody else wouldn't survive a bullet to the head or bled to death after. I was fine in an hour."

Wolfe didn't tell Johnny how he got up alive and well and saw dark splatters and glistening scraps of flesh on the grass that were already surrounded by busy insectile life. Unlike any other person with a death wish, he got to live it through and see that world doesn't change because of one death or a thousand. Every pain is diminished before stubborness of life and his power was created by same force of nature that compels flowers to grow through concrete and burns out forests in summer to fill the charred earth with vegetation anew next spring. Maybe one day he would tell all that. Maybe Johnny would understand.


	3. Just a Scratch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pure kink. I promise to dig out some actual plot next time. Hopefully.

"It's just a scratch," Johhny protested, "I've underestimated the height."

Wolfe frowned at Royalle's awkward attempt to stand straight, at his jeans ripped at the knee.

"Do you have only one pair?"

Royalle blushed right up to the ears. Wolfe sighed.

"Take it off," he gestured at the jeans and went to get first aid kit.

Johnny obeyed unquestioningly. After that he perched unsteadily on the edge of an armchair wearing only t-shirt and boxers. He stretched the injured leg out, trying to prevent shallow but wide cut from bleeding on the carpet. 

When Wolfe returned, he kneeled next to Johnny, carefully cleaned the wound and put a band-aid on it. It likely was unpleasant, but Royalle didn't move, he even seemed to stop breathing. The band-aid slowly reddened with blood. Wolfe tried to ignore it but he could clearly imagine thick metallic taste. His hunger responded with a dull pain, and a spark of inviting warmth on the fingers where a little of Royalle's blood remained, enough to make Wolfe unable to look anywhere but at the wound. He leaned in, touched lips to raw skin near the edge of band-aid, where the smell of antibiotic overpowered the smell of blood. He kissed the bruise, traced it with tongue. Johnny looked at him with darkened eyes and spread the knees wider. Wolfe didn't know what he wanted more: to sink teeth into warm thin skin or to carry Royalle to the bedroom. But he knew that he could get anything he wanted, that his power made his right. One day Johnny Royalle would be his equal. Would be able to stop him if necessary. Wolfe was waiting and his awakened hunger grew like a tumour.


End file.
